Breaking the Wall

Quick report - got to hurry to get on the plane. 2:30:32, 10th place, $250 (elite athlete coordinator told me at first I was 9th, but I checked the results and they say 10th). Head wind made it slower between 14 and 19. I got left alone there. There was headwind earlier, but I was working with two guys (US), so it was much better. First half in 1:12:43, then they dropped me, one came back on the last mile. Field loaded with Kenyans and Ethiopians, but they kept dropping out like flies. I was in 16th place at the half. The highlight of the day was running an FRB commercial on the last mile passing two guys, one of them Joseph Sitinei (they could see the back of my shirt with the FRB logo), moved into the money.

More detailed version. Writing this at the airport waiting to board, so this will be incremental. Warmed up a mile from Comfort Inn on Front Street (will put a plug for it, they provided free elite runner lodging, and I was pleased that the room did not smell like smoke at all even though this was one of the most smoking states in the US). Did the ritual, saw MickeyB, handed him my stuff, it was now time to race.

The elite area was full of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, and all in the marathon, since the half was offering no prize money. A few US guys as well. They did a wave start with the elites starting 1 minute ahead of the first wave, which would have contained the half-marathoners I could have possibly used to draft off. This is a bad idea, I will write the race director discouraging that practice. Wave start is a good idea, but declared elites should not be separated from the guys who think they can or actually can run the elite pace.

The throat irritation was still an issue. I felt I could run a half losing no more than 30 seconds, but I was not sure about the full marathon. Even minor respiratory infections can cause serious dehydration in the second half, as well as fuel issues with the body redirecting the energy you would normally use for running into fighting the infection. I did my best to sedate it with garlic, and it did keep it from developing into a full-blown cold, but it was still not good enough for a top marathon performance.

I tried to run as close to the back of the pack as possible. First mile was 5:39, followed by a 5:18 slight downhill mile. I hooked up with Dewayne Miner from Birmingham, AL and Brendon Moody from Van Wert, OH. We were going around 5:30 pace. It felt a tiny bit fast, but with the headwind from mile 5 to mile 8 I did not want to run alone. I did not bring Garmin on purpose. I realized that I spend a lot of mental energy guessing if they splits I get from Garmin are accurate. So we traded leads once a minute.

5 miles in 27:05, 34:16 at 10 K, 51:34 at 15 K (17:18 5 K), 55:21 at 10 miles. Still working together, picking up a fallen Kenyan here and there. Got passed by a half-marathoner, and another guy that I think was a half-marathoner as well. Around 11 miles I knew that I needed to back off and run my own pace, even if that means battling the headwind between 14 and 19 miles alone. The pain signal was coming from vastus medialis - the inner quad muscle - on both legs. That muscle was fatiguing fast. The rest of the quad was fine. Probably from the rollers. The course has no monster hills, but there were hardly any stretches that were flat. Most of the time you were running either up or down about 1% grade. My legs were not trained for that, next time need to make sure to train on rollers if I come back.

20 K in 1:08:57 (17:23 5 K). Brendon and Dewayne are gradually pulling away. Half in 1:12:43. Around 14 MickeyB reported I was in 16th place. Only one struggling Kenyan in view, Brendon and Dewayne are almost out of sight. Well, a hungry lion will eat a small sick antelope for lunch when that is all he can get his paws on. Reeled him in, as soon as I got close enough for him to hear me, he dropped out. 15th place now, 5 more to go to the money.

I noticed that the Powerade at the aid stations was very diluted, and they were filling up the cups only about a quarter full. So after about 10 I was doing Powerade religiously, and making sure I've got it all in me. I knew that I was under high risk of dehydration, electrolyte loss, and glycogen depletion already from the throat infection and travelling.

Hit the 15th mile in 6:03. It was a slight uphill and into a head wind, about 6 mph. The wind would not have been a big factor in a pack, but being alone made a difference. Probably 10 seconds a mile. 1:23:54 at 15 miles, last 5 in 28:33. Not bad, but that 6:03 mile gave me some serious concerns. Nevertheless, I was able to regroup and keep it slightly under 6:00 from then on. 1:27:07 at 25K, last 5 K in 18:10. No victims for the next 5 miles, keeping a steady sub-6:00. Not great, but with the wind it could be good enough to make my way into top 10, and with the throat infection it could be a lot worse, so I should be thankful I am still going.

1:45:38 at 30 K, last 5 K in 18:31. That ended up being my slowest 5 K in the race. 1:53:34 at 20 miles, last 5 in 29:40. Still gapping the 6:00 guy, that's good. Saw a victim at 20 miles - a white guy, DNF, on the side of the road talking to the volunteers. That puts me in 14th place. 4 more to go.

Still sub-6:00 consistently. Now a slight down, and a tailwind. Saw a jogging Ethiopian - Titus Mitunda. Passed him, now 13th. Another jogging/walking Kenyan at around 23. Now 12th. 2 more to go.

Nobody for a while. Trial of faith. Around 24 saw two victims, one black and one white. At first they looked too far away, like they were unreachable. But I have run enough marathons to know that the looks at that point are very deceptive. If you did not see somebody, and now you see them all of a sudden, that is a very bad sign for them, and a very good sign for you. As they approached, I saw it was Dewayne Miner and Joseph Sitinei.

2:22:29 at 40 K, last 10 K in 36:51, 2:23:23 at 25 miles, last 5 miles in 29:49. Pulling out Abraham's knife getting ready to sacrifice the rams in caught the thicket of the marathon wall. Some history behind this metaphor. Abraham and Isaac in the Old Testament went to the land of Moriah. Abraham thought he was going to sacrifice Isaac, his faith being tested, when in fact they were only going to sacrifice a ram. At one point, Isaac said: "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?", to which Abraham replied, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering". Abraham passed the test of faith, and indeed a sacrificial animal was provided - a ram caught in the thicket. For some odd reason I find a parallel between that experience, and what happens when you are in the last 10 K of a marathon, you are out of money position, and for a long time there is nobody ahead of you in sight. Then all of a sudden you see somebody to pass and move into the money. The poor fellow is like that ram in the thicket. There is nothing he can do to stay in the money. And just like with Abraham, your faith has been rewarded, you kept going, you did not give up the chase even though you could not see who you were chasing, and now you are going to get some cash for it. I call it "the ram in the thicket experience".

In the history of the bloggers I can recall several "ram in the thicket" experiences. TOU 2001 - me chasing Joe Wilson, 2002 TOU - me chasing Paul Petersen, 2004 - Steve Ashbaker chasing Demetrio Cabanillas Jr (money upgrade), 2005 Ogden - Paul Petersen chasing me, 2007 SLC  - Steve Ashbaker chasing Dave Danley, and now one more in this  race for me, this  time a double , moving from 12th to 10th in a mile. I've never sacrificed two rams before.

Sprinted to the finish to discourage the rams from thoughts of resurrection. 2:30:32,  5:54 pace on the last mile. This completed a year of 5 marathons all under 2:33. I've never done this before, my previous record was last year with all 5 under 2:36, but one of those (Moab) was non-competitive, I did it as a training run in 2:35:20 (the highlight of the day on that one was getting lost on the last quarter and then crawling under a barbed wire to get to the finish line, very fitting for April Fool's Day).

After the finish there was a lot of soreness in vastus medialis, to the point where I could not squat. I stretched, and it was gone. I was able to run back to the hotel, about 0.75.

A.M. Easy 10.1 with Ted this morning in 1:14:29. Trail covered with snow and ice for the most part. Hamstrings felt stale in the first mile, and it took me a while to figure out why they would be. Then I remembered I'd run a marathon two days earlier. Towards the end the hamstring staleness was gone, and I felt completely normal.

Funny story from yesterday. Sarah left my only pair of dress shoes (I own only one specifically for the purpose of going to church) in SLC, and we discovered that about 20 minutes before our church meetings. Sarah suggested I should wear a pair of my dark blue racing flats since they looked the closest to church-appropriate shoes in my wardrobe. So I figured better go to church in racing flats than not at all.

Also, I have finally finished my race report from Saturday. Added some history of rams in the thicket for those interested.

P.M. 2 miles with Benjamin in 15:44. Then 1.05 with Julia in 11:38, and 1.5 with Jenny in 14:29. Another 0.3 to pick up church keys.

As I watched Benjamin lope along at 7:30 pace in the second half of his run, and contemplated the implications of the recent change in the OTQ marathon standard, I began to appreciate the value of pushing yourself really really hard to see what your true best is in the sport. It really does not matter that much where you actually end up as long as you really dug deep and did not quit by calling your best something that really was not. I can teach Benjamin what I learned from what I've tried. I can also teach him to work hard by working hard myself. He has more of what we call natural talent. His form is smooth, he has good natural speed. Many top runners of today are there because they saw their dad run. Their dad may have been only a 2:40 marathoner. But that was good enough to get them going, and they were able to do better. As I pointed out earlier on several occasions, if we want to see US dominate in the marathon, we need to nourish those 2:40 guys. We need to have thousands of them, and we need to give them a reason and an opportunity to try to fully develop their talent, even if it is limited, even if they are never going to get much faster than 2:40.   Then their children, other relatives, neighbors, friends, etc will be inspired to run to the best of their ability, and some of those will have the talent to dominate in the world scene.

A.M. Easy 10.1 with Ted and Adam. Slippery in place, but the trail was a lot better than yesterday. With a mile to go I suggested we should chase the 1:15:00 guy. It took us a while to get up to speed through the tunnels and slipping, so once we got out into the clear we really had to book it. Ran the last three quarters in 1:32, 1:25, and 1:17. Total time was 1:14:29, same as yesterday to the second! Ted decided to test my kick with 60 meters to go, it passed the test.

P.M. Was originally planning on just running with the kids and Stu. Stu could not come, but Ted, James, and Jared came instead. I had an excuse to run a bit longer, and I used it. 1.5 with Benjamin, Jenny, Ted, James, and Jared, plus Jacob and Joseph in the double stroller in 13:29. Jenny was lagging behind a bit, she has those moods sometimes, so I stayed with her. Everybody else ran 13:13. Then 0.5 with Benjamin, Ted, and James in 3:26, still pushing the double stroller.  Then left the stroller at home, and ran a 4 mile fartlek with James and Ted in 27:34. Then 1.05 with Julia in 11:30. 

A.M. Easy 10.1 with Ted in 1:14:53. Spent most of the run discussing the new OTQ marathon standards.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 11:13, 1.5 with Jenny in 13:56, 2 with Benjamin in 17:37. Pushed the double stroller with Jacob in it. 

A.M. Easy 10.1 with Ted in 1:12:23. 8x100 strides in the middle. Talked about the FRB Del Sol Team. Looks like we've got some muscle. If things pan out with a couple of undecided big guns, the slowest guy on the team will be a 2:33 marathoner. The goal is to humble Google, and to demonstrate to them that if they want to be competitive in those relays, they need to start giving their runners time to train. Hopefully that will start the thought process in the direction of sponsoring a real running team Japan-style.

P.M. 2 miles with Benjamin in 17:22, 1.5 with Jenny in 13:31,  1.05 with Julia in 11:10, and 0.2 errand. 

A.M. Ted is in Kansas, so ran alone. The weather was warm, 38 degrees, but it was raining. I wanted to do something entertainment-fast, so to keep the entertaining value of the workout I needed a good knee lift. Sarah took the only pair of tights that would have had a good knee lift in the rain. She cannot wear the others, they are too big on her. The others don't, even when it is not raining. I decided it was warm enough for shorts.

After a 10 minute warmup, decided to do a fartlek of 1 minute on 1 minute off, the on minute around 5:20 pace, the off minute around 7:30 until I was tired. Figured it would happen after 16 on minutes. The on minutes gradually progressed from 5:20 to 5:10 pace. I did not track the off pace very thoroughly, but the average pace in the fartlek motion was around 6:00.  Tracked the pace by the dots on the trail. The breathing was elevated but there was no significant muscular fatigue. That made the workout very enjoyable. I was done with 16 on minutes before I knew it. With the clothes being fully soaked the rain started to feel colder, and I wanted to get home fast. So I figured I'd do a few more. Did 4 more on minutes. The pace progressed to 5:00.

Ran a brisk cool down. Total time for 10.1 was 1:02:41, avg. 6:12.38. The  form felt very good - good knee lift, good feeling at the end of the hip extension and push-off phase. I even experienced minor fatigue in the abdominal muscles, which I probably do not use very much normally - they never get tired from running, they are weak unless I work them out with sit-ups and other non-running exercises, and I do not run any better when I make them strong.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 10:57, 1.5 with Jenny and Jared running, Benjamin in the double stroller, in 13:09. Jared fell back a bit and finished in 13:25. Then put Jenny and Jared in the stroller, and let Benjamin loose. Another 2 miles in 16:14.

A.M. Started with 2.1 around the block with Sarah in 21:09. Pushed Jacob in the single stroller. It was snowing. Then ran the Uneventful Half alone in 1:29:36, 6:50.07 avg. Parts of the trail were good, but the last 3 miles were covered with slick snow. Will run with the kids later in the afternoon, hope to catch a snow-less window.

I am thinking to survive the winter using the slacker mode (90 miles a week, strides, fartleks) when the weather is bad, and normal mode (120 a week with Big Workouts) otherwise. This would hopefully provide protection against overtraining and let the immune system stay strong to fight off traveling bugs. Last week I was in the slacker mode, and now am feeling rejuvenated.

P.M. Lots of snow. So the kid's training paces were slow, but not the effort. 1.05 with Julia in 13:29, 1.75 with Jenny in 18:36, and 2 with Benjamin in 19:02. Took advantage of the snow on the ground to check out my stride. Ran on the snow at a steady pace for a little bit, then measured the distance between the footprints with a measuring tape. Discovered that when I push off my right foot my stride is consistently 2 inches shorter than when I push off with my left ( the right foot push off produced 60 inch strides, while the left push off produced 62 inch strides, 3% difference). This is in spite of the fact that I would kick a soccer ball, or push off taking a hurdle or in a long jump with my right leg. I do feel weird when I land on my right foot - I would describe it as awkward and underpowered.

A.M. A very Uneventful Half-Marathon with Ted. Daniel joined us for the first 2.5, then turned around. The most likely events would have been slipping and falling on ice, so we tried to keep it as uneventful as possible. Managed to catch the 8:00 guy and even put some distance on him nevertheless. Total time was 1:42:44.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:56, 1.5 with Jenny in 14:49, 1.05 with Julia in 11:26, 

A.M. Ran with Ted at 5:10 AM. It was 21 degrees, dark, and slippery, although not as bad as yesterday. Not in the mood to do a tempo, but ran brisk to get Ted to work on time. Stopped around 9.6 for VPB, told Ted to go ahead. Thought I'd catch him easily going 5:30. Well, I thought I could go 5:30, but with the cold, dark, and ice patches all I could manage was 6:00. And Ted being in a hurry to get to work went 6:20. So it took me a good 2.6 to catch him. Dropped him off at 14.1, then added another 1.05 around the block in 6:17 - 90 degree turns are not good with ice on the ground. 1:41:33 for 15.15, 6:42.18 avg.

P.M. 1.5 with Jenny in 14:33, 2 with Benjamin in 17:18, 1.05 with Julia in 11:11, then a short tempo pick-up - two laps around the block by myself (0.7) in 3:57, 5:38.5 avg, first lap in 2:00 (5:42.86 pace), second in 1:57 (5:34.29). On the first lap had to dodge two cars, this moved me into the snowy/icy part twice. On the second lap there was only one car, it was polite and moved out of the way. Had to ease off on the turns, they were icy/snowy. Felt strong and relaxed.

Later in the evening we learned a sad news. Our good friend and neighbor who acted like an adopted grandpa for our kids, and especially for Julia, passed away from a heart attack. Julia always sat on his lap during the Sacrament meeting at church. He even made a bird house for our girls, and was in the process of making a doll house in spite of not feeling that great - that was his way to show love. His physical heart was weak and did fail, but his spiritual heart did much better. So I feel sad that he is not with us any more, but I feel happy for him that he truly endured to the end, and moved on to better things when his time came.

A.M. Ran at 5:00 AM alone. It was fairly cold, somewhere in the 20-25 range. Started out slow, stayed slow through the first 1.5 because of the snow/ice. At 1.5 was 38 seconds behind the 8:00 guy. Then got out on drier ground with more traction and picked it up. Decided to run marathon pace on dry spots, and jog on the snowy/icy ones. Ended up with 1:06:40 for 10.1, and about 4 miles of tempo running. Last quarter was 1:21 trying to catch the 1:06:40 - this was quite an experience in the dark and with 3 90 degree turns.

P.M. 1.5 with Ted, James, Jared, Jenny, and Benjamin in 13:22. Benjamin was 2 seconds ahead, and Jared 2 seconds behind. Then another 0.5 after dropping Jenny and Jared off in 3:35. Then 1.05 with Julia in 11:12.  Then 5 miles with Ted in 38:36. Would have been uneventful were it not for two dogs that jumped out of nowhere and ran after us. Then we shared war stories about animal encounters. Ted's running partner once got bitten in the buttocks by a little dog with a very good vertical jump. 

A.M. Ran 6:30 AM with Ted. 15 degrees. Trail conditions were decent for the most part, a couple of icy spots. The plan was to run 15.1 uneventfully. However, without much tempo volume lately I had a couple of horses neigh once in a while and tried to create events. Ted is smart, he knows what to do. So he engaged me into a conversation about the VO2 Max study that Sean posted on the forum. I gave him a piece of my mind on why exercise physiology has contributed so little to the improvements in running. Then the conversation drifted into how you should really do a study - get 1000 people at the age of 10, and give them enough of an incentive to keep training for at least 15 years. The we talked about what this would produce, and I mentioned that they did have something similar in East Germany. From there the conversation drifted into the subject of how much illegal performance enhancing drugs really help you get faster. Ted argued that they do a lot, I argued that you can get the same and better results with honest training and healthy life style overtime, and that if you drugged a guy who has already done his homework, it would not make him run any better. Right in the heat of that discussion around the 8.6 mark we saw a guy going the other direction. It was time for us to turn around to add 5 miles to our standard 10.1 course anyway, so we did, and I said, let's get him. Ted was reluctant. I figured I'd just chase the guy down quickly, engage him in a conversation, then Ted will catch up. So I went through my gears, got up to 5:45 pace, held it for about 0.5, and caught our new friend. His name is Tyler. Hopefully he will join the blog soon. We ran the rest of the distance with him. Total time for 15.1 was 1:51:32, 7:23.18 avg.

Runner's joke. "You mean you can run 26 miles without stopping?" "Yes, on a good day, depends on what I ate for lunch the day before, and if I do a good warm-up first."

P.M. Went sledding with the kids to South Fork of the Provo Canyon right near the start of the Provo River Half.  On the way a car right in front of us went sledding on Hwy 189 between Bridal Veil and Vivian Park, span around, and end up on the side of the road, but no damage. Fortunately we were far behind enough to have room to slow down and avoid it hitting us. Did the kids run over there. The course was rough - you were going either up or down, and 0.5 of each kid's run involved running down on ice for 0.25, and then back up on the way back. Ran 1.5 with Jenny in 15:05, then 1 with Julia in 12:00, then 2 with Benjamin in 18:20. Added another 2 when I got home in 14:59.

A.M. Ran with Ted at 6:30 AM. Uneventful 15.1. Very slippery roads, record for this year so far. We had a great debate going on a variety of topics. Ted knows he needs to hit controversial issues to keep the pace slow on uneventful days, such as stating that I have as much slow twitch fiber ratio as Alberto Salazar. When we convert 10% of the US population to competitive running, perhaps we can start a Ted and Sasha Uneventful 15.1 Talk Show. Total time was 1:53:21, 7:30.4 avg.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 11:09, 1.5 with Jenny and Jared - they whooped the 9:00 guy coming from behind - Jenny got 13:17, Jared 13:21. I think we should have named Jenny Catherine after Catherine Ndereba - she runs just like her on a good day. A bit slow to start, then getting progressively faster, and closing furiously. Then 2 miles with Benjamin. He started at a bit faster than 9:00, then fairly quickly progressed to 8:00. I told him that the 8:00 guy was getting concerned. He said he was not chasing him. I told him the 8:00 guy was concerned anyway. He eventually eased into 7:20 pace, and thoroughly whooped the 8:00 with 15:49 for the whole run. Added another 0.7 in 5:00 afterwards.

A.M. Exceptionally uneventful 20.1 First 15.5 with Ted. Total time 2:26:59. Did not like the snow or the layers of clothes. The only event was measuring our strides in moderately deep snow in the park. Both of us have a discrepancy of 3 inches, but Ted has a very funny way of landing on one of his feet, but not the other - it hovers right near the ground for a while before it lands.

Went to our adopted granpa's funeral afterwards. There they sang Be Still My Soul. This is a special song for me. It brought some memories. In the beginning of 2003 I was having a hard time. I was not happy with my job, or my running. I felt I had reached a plateau, and felt condemned to stay at it. I had exhausted the limits of Sasha Science of the day to make me any faster. The only thing that was left to keep me trying was Sasha Faith, and humans by nature have ups and downs in their faith. One winter day that year with lots of snow on the ground I found myself alone 8 miles into a 15 mile run, and 7 miles away from home in a fairly deep snow. Every step was a struggle. My faith was wavering. Is it even worth it to keep trying so hard? I felt like I wanted to lie down in the snow and just stay there. Then in my mind I heard the words and the tune of Be Still My Soul. This revived my spirit, and I continued the run, still struggling through the snow, but with a much different perspective.

Eventually Sasha Faith produced an advance in Sasha Science, which led to a breakthrough. It happened in the Top of Utah Marathon that same year. I ran that race with a lot of power. But that power, manifested on the day of the race, had its roots in that run on that dull winter day with God lifting up my soul and telling it to be still, reviving my faith at its down. That is one reason TOU 2003 is a very special race for me, and that is why I still keep the picture from that race on the blog. It will be there until something equally special takes place.

P.M. 5 miles by myself (kids ran earlier with Sarah) in 36:25. Still slippery. Picked it up on the last 0.25, ran it in 1:25.

A.M. 15.1 with Ted at 6:30 AM with minor events. The road had more dry patches, so we took advantage of them. Ted's shin was hurting, so we did not get as much tempo running in as the dry road would have permitted, but that was OK - Monday is not a tempo day anyway, plus I am happy to just build base for the next few weeks. Total time 1:41:46, 6:44.37 avg, last 13.1 in 1:26:03, 6:34.12 avg. Tempo running was done around 5:40-6:00 pace.

I posted my Digital X-Ray Image Dilemma on the forum. Any thoughts are appreciated.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 11:26, 1.5 with Jenny in 14:38, 2 with Benjamin in 15:47 ( he showed the 8:00 who's the boss with a 7:12 closing mile), then 0.7 by myself in 4:38. For our Family Home Evening activity we went around the neighborhood to pass around presents and to Christmas carol. When we were done, Benjamin and Julia wanted to run home, so we ran 0.15.

A.M. The morning started with a dream about being stuck in some Russian town on the Black Sea, an hour until the flight back to America, and driving our Ford Escort 93 Wagon to the airport. All of a sudden, the engine light goes on, the temperature indicator goes way into the hot range, and the car refused to go more than 20 mph. I began to calculate how much the airline was going to charge me as a consequence of missing the flight. Then I started trying to figure out how I was going to get to the airport period. Then I found a very simple short cut to my home in Provo - wake up. I have very many blessings in my life. Not that I am plagued by nightmares, in fact, things are never particularly bad in my dreams, but I always feel happy when I wake up - reality is beating the dreams quite often.

Ted came this morning and reported 29 degrees outside. I figured the roads would be clear enough for a tempo. Then I looked for my fast pants, and could not find them. I did not want to run in the slow ones, they are too heavy. Spent about 30 minutes looking for them. Finally said, forget it, and put on two pairs of shorts, three long-sleeved shirts, a pair of racing flats, a pair of gloves, and a bank robber hood. What a combination! The idea was to keep the upper body warm, and transfer some of that to the exposed legs. It worked! I was warm the entire time.

Ran the warm-up 6.22 in 45:18. With the freedom of shorts, racing flats, and decent traction, the horses were neighing, and the legs were singing BINGO and were interested in a Swahili lesson. Ted was not feeling as feisty with his hip tightness and decided to take it easy, so I ran alone. Warmed up the first 2.5 in 14:21, 180 turn on ice was interesting, but otherwise the road was very decent except for occasional patches of snow and ice. Picked up the pace on the second 2.5 - 13:57, 28:18 at 5 miles. Decided to try to not be slower on the last 2.5, and was moving along at a steady 5:34 pace building a bit of a cushion for the 0.5-1% rise at the start of the last mile and the snow and ice on the last 100 meters. Ted, in the meantime, timed his turnaround so that I would be catching him on the last mile. With a quarter to go, I entered the greyhound-rabbit gravity zone, and there was nothing I could do. Some magic force started pulling me towards him against my will. This would be fine, except that force was coming from my legs, and he started running 5:20 pace to make me work. Last quarter was 1:17 in spite the snow and ice on the last 100, which made the last mile 5:25, and the last 2.5 13:48, last 5 27:45, and total time of 42:06, 5:36.8 avg, unintentionally and unexpectedly only 14 seconds slower than course PR in spite of the colder temperatures and slippage.

Felt that relaxing the quad, pulling up the foot with the hamstring, and using hip adductors to bring hips closer together helped with the form, and allowed me to run faster.

Ran 1.38 cool down, total time for 15.1 was 1:38:29, 6:31.32 avg.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 15:54 0.7 by myself in 4:51, 1.05 with Julia in 10:48, 1.5 with Jenny in 14:25. Time to put another plug for the Training Review Requests Board. I used to be able to follow everybody's training almost daily when the blog was small, but now as big as it is I cannot keep up any more. Plus, we now have a lot of others who are knowledgeable and willing to review your training. One of the expectations we have of the racing team members is that they will regularly help other runners with training advice. If you post on the board, you will get their attention.

A.M. Almost uneventful 10.1 in 1:16:31. The events were that we ran at 5:00 AM, it was warmer (36 degrees), and it rained the entire time. We discussed why Ryan Hall beats me at the rate of about 45 seconds a mile on every distance from 400 m to the marathon. The fact that the gap does not change shows that we have equal propensity to distance running. We are about the same height and weight - I am 5'10 and weigh 145. His height and weight have been reported as both 5'10 and 140lb, and 6'0 and 142 lb. We train about the same, aside from the fact that he might be putting in another 20-30 miles a week, and would run everything 45 seconds a mile faster. The differences in training, if there are any of significance should not account for more than 5 seconds a mile difference.

My guess as the most probable cause - the difference is in some very difficult to change anatomical structure. I do feel like I stumble every time I land on my right foot, and never really feel or look like I am running smooth. He looks like a rolling wheel.

I do have the guts to propose that it is normal for a light boned male with a good heart, a propensity to distance running (slow-twitch dominance), no structural flaws, no health disorders, and proper training to run 2:12 marathon or faster. We think 2:12 is a big deal, but as a percentage of the world record, this is only like 10.37 in 100 meters. OTQ standard "B" is 10.28, which is equivalent to 2:10:56 marathon as a percentage of the world record. The standard is designed to gather a field of 32 participants. The reason we do not have 32 people sub-2:11 in the US is that while it is common to find light boned slow-twitch people with a good heart, it is more difficult to find such people that would also be free from running-impairing structural flaws. And out of those, we need to find those who are willing to consistently run 120 miles a week for several years. Thus sub-2:11 becomes a very big deal.

So the marathon, due to its demands on the training discipline, reduces the level of competition, and thus allows people with structural flaws to gain some status. Somebody who would have been stuck at 11.35 100 meters had he been a sprinter of equivalent "natural ability" (again using world record percentage for comparison), can run 2:25:00 ideal record-eligible marathon equivalent and make a local newspaper a couple of times a year, and even win some cash. I know that, it is great, or at least better than nothing, but I do not want to stop there. My interest is now in correcting the structural flaws. What structural flaws create an impairment in running? Which ones of them can be corrected, and how?

Why am I so interested in it? Marathon is one of the most honest sports - compared to others, your success is greatly a function of how hard you are willing to work. But not greatly enough. I want to make it more honest, make it so that work means more. If we can find a way to correct at least some of the currently "incurable" structural flaws that make you a slow runner, we would make it harder for the guys with talent but less than optimal work ethics to win. We will see better role models in the winners. It will be very good for us.

P.M. Jenny and Julia ran with Sarah. I ran 1.05 with Joseph in the stroller in 8:21, then 2 with Benjamin in 16:27 pushing Joseph, then 4 by myself in 27:57. At 9:00 PM  Benjamin started doing entering his data in the blog, and Jared, who came for a sleepover,  remembered that he had not yet run. So I took him out for 1.05 in 9:41.

A.M. A very eventful morning. Ted came in at 6:20 and announced the arrival of a heat wave - 38 degrees! We ran in shorts. Did our usual 15.1 course with a 10 x 1 minute on/1 minute off fartlek. The on pace varied, started slow then progressed to around 5:28, then eventually progressed into 5:12, and on the last one we actually ran 5:04 pace - I mistakingly told Ted 5:12, though. The recoveries were around 7:10 pace. The main discussion topic was whether Salazar was really as slow in shorter distances as the legend has it (57 quarter), and whether he reached his true potential in the marathon (2:08). The consensus was that the legend probably stems from his inability to run the last 400 of the 12 under 57, and that he would have run 2:05 in Berlin with pacers. Total time was 1:45:26, 6:58.94 avg.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 11:16, 1.5 with Jenny in 13:25, 2 with Benjamin in 15:14, 0.7 on my own in 4:38. Pushed Jacob for Julia's and Jenny's runs. Benjamin impressed me with his zeal today. I told him run easy, no splits, just go by effort. He said, no I want the splits so I'll know which guy to chase. About 0.5 into the run he decided he wanted to chase the 8:00 guy. He hit the first mile in 8:05, then his subsequent quarters were 1:54, 1:48, 1:45, and 1:42. Got some hailstorm on the last quarter, then I got it in full measure on the remaining 0.7 by myself. I asked Benjamin what kind of effort he was putting in on the last half mile. He said about 5 K race pace. It is quite a sight to watch an 8-year-old cruise (not sprint!) at sub-7:00 pace, never ceases to amaze me even though I get to see it almost daily. We run side by side, he turns over at around 190, I turn over at around 180, so even though he is only 4-3 in height his stride is almost as long as mine, and at 7:00 pace my stride is not short by any means.

A.M. Eventful 15.1 with Ted. Was supposed to be uneventful. The events were the end of the heat wave, lots of ice on the ground, and me taking a spectacular spill on black ice under the bridge around 14.3 into the run. Almost made it to the finish without events, almost. This is the best I've had in years. I felt like a figure skater - a lot of interesting movements in the process. It happened so fast, and there was so much movement involved that I do not remember all the details. Got away with a bloody lip and nose. Got up right away. The quarter with the fall was 1:52, and I did not stop my watch in the middle. We were otherwise going 6:40 pace at that point, which perhaps was not a safe running speed on that part of the trail. Total time was 1:49:22.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 11:11, 1.5 with Jenny in 13:22, she closed the last quarter in 1:49, 2 with Benjamin in 17:51. I told him to guess his splits every quarter, but I was not going to give him any feedback. He guess all of them within 3 seconds except the ones where there was an ice patch that reduced us to a walk. On that one, he was off by 7 seconds. Added another 0.7 in 4:46.

A.M. A fairly eventful long run with a tempo. Ran alone - Ted is out of town. 18 degrees outside, got snowed on in the last 8 miles. Total of 20.25 in 2:13:15, avg. 6:34.81. My original plan was to run my regular 10.1 and add 2 times Provo River 5 Mile Tempo once I got there to make it 20.1. I was also under a time constaint to finish the run in about 2:15 or so for logistical rather than training reasons. I decided to run fast when I could, and do what I can on icy parts. It turned out that most of the trail was icy, and it was bad enough that I hit a couple of 8:15 miles. It became apparent that the run on my original course would take too long. After some thought, and 8:15 pace gave me plenty of oxigen for thinking, I decided the only way I'd be able to finish the run in time is to go back to the house and then run the 0.35 loop around the block 29 times at 6:00 pace or so. That was the only place I could count on being clear for long enough to go that fast short of going to the indoor track, which is about the last thing I would do next to running on a treadmill.

I did manage about a mile of about 5:30-5:35 pace in between icy spots on the trail, which got me to 9.6 mark in 1:11:51, 7:29.06 avg. Then finally I was in the clear, and I ran 0.5 in 3:03 to warm up the engine. Then I was ready to shift into a tempo gear, and once I did I started hitting the 0.35 loops in 2:00 with very little deviations - this is about 5:43 pace. I kept looping around like this as the snow was falling down. At first, traction was decent, but it kept getting progressively worse. Towards the end, there was enough snow to where I slowed down to 2:03 loops, this is about 5:51 pace, but still much better than 8:15 on the trail. Odd feeling - when I tried to pick it up, the effort did not feel any harder, and the pace was not any faster. Finished the 29 loops (10.15) in 58:21, 5:44.93 avg.

Those loops were tedious, but there was one good thing about them. The course was absolutely pancake flat, world record quality, aside from the turns, a couple of gutters, and the snow falling on the ground. Nevertheless it was still good enough that I experienced the power of rhythm. Even though I was at the end of 20 miles, it felt just like a regular 10 mile tempo, holding the pace with much greater ease that I would on rollers. I can now understand better why Haile says there is no course better than Berlin.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 10:02, 2 with Benjamin in 17:27, 1.75 with Jenny in 15:27, and 0.35 in 2:30 by myself.

A.M. Ran 3.85 around the block with Sarah, actually one lap of it to catch up at 6:40 pace, and also accelerated a couple of times for misc. errands, 34:30, avg. 8:57.66. Then finished the rest of the 15.2 by myself. Eventually eased into sub-6:40 pace and maintained it. The roads were much better than Saturday, although there was still plenty of snow and ice. Total time was 1:50:40, avg. 7:16.84. While running on my own, the average pace was 6:42.64.

A.M -2 : 3 miles cross-country skiing in the Hobblecreek Canyon. Decent trail. Amazing how not being conditioned for a different sport can wear you out from so little effort.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 11:09, 1.5 with Benjamin and Jenny in 13:21, then another 0.5 with Benjamin, total of 17:21 for 2 miles. 

A.M. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to run through the snow some miles today! Ran 15.1 alone in 1:44:22, 6:54.7 avg. There was about an inch or two of snow on the ground everywhere. Fortunately, the temperature was 10 degrees at the start, which made the snow crunchy for most of the run and gave me good traction. Towards the end, it warmed up to 18 degrees, and the snow became slippery. I was going around 6:45-6:50 pace, but then slowed down to 7:12 on the last two miles.

Merry Christmas to all!

P.M. Got a Dual Resistance Harness as a Christmas present from Sarah's mom. Tried it out, the kids had a blast, especially in the sled mode, although not without a couple of falls in the running mode when I pulled too quick and too hard. Total of about 0.25 of threshold effort. Tried it on Sarah as well. We were at Sarah's parents house in West Valley. Her neighbors across the street got outside to see the show. The man explained with lots of profanity  that he needed one of those to get his wife in shape. 

The harness was getting a lot of attention and comments from the neighbors. I think it is a great way to break the ice, start a conversation, and introduce the idea of aerobic exercise to the masses. 

Then ran with Benjamin when we got home (Jenny and Julia ran with Sarah earlier). We tried the harness on better parts of the trail. Benjamin liked being able to go fast without much effort, although he did fall once on black ice. Our total time for 2 miles was 15:37. 

Then added another 3 in 19:43. Lots of slippage on the trail where I ran, much worse than the direction I ran with Benjamin. 

A.M. Started the run with 5.15 around the block with Sarah in 45:00. Towed her with a harness. This way, I worked at about 7:00-7:30 effort to get 8:00 - 9:00 pace depending on what Sarah was doing on her end. This was the first time we used it, and the roads were slippery, so I was being very cautious. I imagine we could do a tempo run at about 6:20 pace in good conditions especially once Sarah gets used to relaxing more when being pulled at higher speeds.

The harness is a pretty simple gadget. A strong belt with loops on each end that go around your waist. No buckling provided or needed. When you start pulling, the tension of the belt prevents it from sliding on either end. A great device for couples where the husband is much faster than the wife. Allows them to train together with both getting an honest workout at the same time. Power training for the husband, overspeed training for the wife. A good object lesson on the concept of eternal family as well. Would be better, of course, if you could harness the kids at the same time.

Then ran another 10.1 on the trail. Started out at 7:40 pace, thought that was slow, then the snow started getting wetter as it got warmer, and I gradually digressed to 8:00, and then even 9:00 pace, this time not towing anybody. Fortunately, there were occasional dry patches where I could go 6:40. So I ended up averaging slightly sub-8:00 for 10.1 with the total time of 2:03:56 for 15.25.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:51, 0.15 to get Jenny and Julia from a friend's house, 0.35 with Julia in 4:15,  her knee was hurting, 1.5 with Jenny in 14:26, and 1.05 alone in 7:59.

A.M. Towed Sarah for 0.35 in 2:58, then her legs were sore from being towed yesterday, so she went slow untowed, and I went to the trail. Ran a total of 16.1 in 2:02:41, 7:37.2 avg. Much better than yesterday, the 13 degree cold make the snow crunchier. Had a partner for a couple of miles. His name is Kirk. He is 47 years old, and teaches Arabic at BYU. I see him on the trail quite a bit.

P.M. Took Julia sledding in the Hobblecreek Canyon. She was sledding. I was cross-country skiing. We used the infamous harness to connect us.

Dashing through the snow
On a one-horse open sleigh,
Over the fields we go,
Laughing all the way;

Did 2 miles in 22:15, first one uphill in 12:20, then downhill in 9:55. Was faster than I expected I'd be able to do on the rough snow, pulling a sled, and not being conditioned for the sport - this was my second cross-country skiing experience this year, and third time since coming to the US.

My cross-country skiing does lag behind my running. I was number one cross-country skier in my school thanks to the running endurance, but I got beat badly by the real cross-country skiers. My best 3 K at the age of 11.7 was around 16 minutes, which I did in the Moscow championship. The fastest kids my age did it around 13 minutes on the same course. At the same time, I could have run the same distance in around 11:30. What I find odd is the size of the gaps in cross-country skiing vs running. Although they did not have a 3000 meter race for 11 year olds in Moscow, I would estimate that if I lost a 3000 meter race to anybody my age at that time, it would not have been by more than 30 seconds. During a PE class I would gap my classmates running by about the same margin as I would cross-country skiing. Yet cross-country skiing against a real cross-country skier I'd get gapped by as much as I would gap my untrained classmates.

Another thing I found interesting is that I've never seen a cross-country skier that could not just jump in a running race and be competitive. On the other hand, it is not quite the same with runners trying to cross-country ski. I also noticed that it seemed like my running went better when I supplemented it with cross-country skiing a couple of times a week. Which is why I am trying this now.

Got home, ran 0.5 with Benjamin in 4:12, then Jenny joined us for the last 1.5 in 13:05, Benjamin got 17:17 for 2 miles. Ran 0.35 with Julia in 4:05, her knee is better, but still hurting.

A.M. Uneventful 15.1 alone in 1:42:58, 6:49.14 avg. The roads were a lot better, although still slippery. But the colder temperatures made the snow crunchier. Ted should be in town tomorrow, looking forward to running with somebody.

P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 11:44, 1.5 with Jenny in 13:13, 2 with Benjamin in 15:33, 0.7 by myself in 4:50.

A.M. Uneventful 20 in 2:27:54. Actually a couple of events. Deposited a check via a run-through method (for lack of a better word when the lobby is closed, the drive through is open, and you run through it because you did not drive to the bank). And was fairly thoroughly slipping on snow pretty much the entire way.

P.M. 2 miles with Benjamin in 16:45. Jenny joined for the first 1.5 in 13:04. Julia ran 1 mile with Sarah. Went cross-country skiing in the Hobblecreek Canyon as well. 1.5 out uphill up about 2-3% grade in 14:11, then 1.5 back downhill in  11:43. Avg. 8:38 pace. The snow was falling pretty hard, and the road was fairly rough. Was pleased with the time, and the way I felt. The arms are starting to remember how to ski, and I felt more power in the push-off with the poles. I also felt better balance. 

A.M. Uneventful 15.1, first 10.1 with Ted in 1:14:22, I suppose having Ted around was the event. Then the last 5 in 33:09, total time was 1:47:31. The trail was covered with snow almost entirely, but the cold temperatures (18 degrees) created decent traction.

P.M. Cross-country skiing in the Hobblecreek Canyon. Up 1.5 in 13:28, then 11:55 down on the way back, 25:23 for 3 miles. The road was rough as usual. Then later 1.05 with Julia in 11:13, and 2 with Benjamin in 16:42. Jenny joined for the first 1.5 in 13:10. I have been telling Jenny to make sure she catches the 9:00  mile girl by the end. So with a quarter to go, she was finally ahead, and moving strong. She turned around, looked back, and said out loud: "Bye-bye the 9:00 mile girl!" Then she ran the last quarter at 8:00 pace and put another 15 seconds on her imaginary rival.